Chapter 1

Sophie Parker wasn't an ordinary twenty-six-year-old girl.

Born and raised in the Upper East Side, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods not just in New York but in the entire United States, and a member of one of the most well-known Jewish families in the city, she could have become the stereotypical spendthrift and superficial socialite, entirely dependent on her parents and preparing to rely on a husband in the future.

However, since her early teens, she had decided that a modern woman couldn't depend on anyone. While on one hand, she enjoyed the generous allowance she received from her parents at the time, dressing like a socialite and frequenting the same places as her peers—equally the offspring of wealthy and powerful families in NY—on the other hand, she made grand plans and prepared herself for a successful career in the future.

Her father, Levvy, was a businessman. He had studied administration to embrace, without hesitation or resentment, the destiny that had been laid out for him since birth—to manage the family businesses. Born the only child of Adena and Caleb Parker, and with his father's only sister unable to have children, if he hadn't taken over the administration of the textile factories and stores established by his great-grandfather, the Parker family's prosperity would have come to an end.

Her mother, Shely, had been a fashion model and had left her career behind to focus on her husband and children. But when Sophie was ten years old and the beautiful woman saw her second marriage fail, she deeply regretted her choice and didn't hold back her frustration, providing Sophie with one more reason to believe that independence was always the better option.

Sophie didn't want to be a model like her mother, despite being just as beautiful as her mother had been in her youth. She also didn't want to take over the prosperous family business, which luckily she wouldn't need to do since her twin brother, Ravid, seemed to have all the necessary inclination. Sophie easily realized that writing was her true passion and, early in high school, she decided to become a journalist.

During her school years, she learned that The Queen's School of England in London was considered the best journalism college in the world. Moving to the UK and completing her studies there became her dream. She actually fulfilled that dream by moving at the age of eighteen, shortly after high school graduation. She only returned to the United States recently after a family tragedy and an irresistible job offer.

Just as she had envisioned, she became a successful woman in the career she chose, holding a much higher position and earning a much higher salary than the vast majority of girls her age. She managed to maintain the same lifestyle she had when living with her parents, almost entirely relying on her own work. The only thing she had at the moment that hadn't been achieved through her own effort and talent was the apartment in Los Angeles, where she had moved a few weeks earlier. It had been acquired thanks to the sale of another apartment in New York, left to her in her grandmother's will.

What she could never have imagined was that a few months after her return, in a conference room where she was supposed to meet her esteemed employers, she would come face to face with none other than Nicholas Rosemont.

Nicholas Rosemont Pierce wasn't an ordinary twenty-nine-year-old guy.

He was born and raised in New York, living in Williamsburg, one of Brooklyn's poorest neighborhoods at the time, until he was sixteen. He lived there with just his mother, Camile Rosemont, a hardworking and solitary woman whom he deeply admired. She never let life's difficulties get to her, even after losing her parents in an accident when she was still a child. She had to live with an aunt after that, and she became pregnant at seventeen, abandoned by her boyfriend after refusing to have an abortion.

Camile, a courageous woman, studied nursing at night while working as a saleswoman during the day and raising her son with the help of her aunt. Once she became a nurse, she dedicated herself to her profession with extraordinary commitment, never neglecting Nicholas's education, always being there to help him with his homework, and instilling the values necessary for him to become a good man.

When Nicholas was a teenager, his mother got a job as a household staff member in Upper East Side. It paid almost twice as much as her previous job. The only catch was that Mrs. Adena Parker needed the person taking care of her husband Caleb to live with the couple and their family, and Camile didn't want to be away from Nicholas. She was about to decline the job when Mrs. Parker surprised her. She said she had no objections to Camile bringing her son along.

That's how Nicholas got to know and experience the luxurious side of New York, but it didn't go to his head. He knew his place very well. Neither the lifestyle nor the fact that he quickly became a member of the Parker family, treated as if he were one of them, changed his down-to-earth nature. He attended the same school as Adena and Caleb's grandchildren, and after high school, he was invited to intern at the Parker company by Levvy while pursuing a business administration degree at NYU, thanks to the football scholarship he had received.

However, shortly before turning twenty-two, Nicholas's life took a drastic turn. He was summoned to the reading of the will of Richard Glover Pierce. Not understanding why he would be called to such an event, he even contemplated not attending. However, his mother called him for a talk and explained the possible reasons for the invitation. It soon became clear that she was right on the money.

The truth was that Nicholas had never known his father. Abandoned by the man after being pressured to have an abortion, Camile had her reasons for wanting him far away. When she finally considered telling him, she discovered that Christopher Pierce had died a year prior. She thought there was no reason to say anything. What she didn't know until that moment, but deduced when Nicholas was called to the will reading, was that Richard, the father of the man who impregnated her, had learned of the existence of his grandson months before his death.

The man had searched high and low for his grandson's whereabouts. With no one else to leave his fortune to, he made this unknown grandson the heir to all his wealth. He hadn't had time to get to know him, but at least he would make him a wealthy man. From wherever he was, he hoped that the young man would continue his projects, his dreams, and everything he had built over a lifetime.

At the request of his late grandfather, Nicholas adopted the name Pierce along with his mother's last name, which he could never give up, and not only did he take care of his grandfather's business with the dedication he had hoped for, but in eight years of hard work, he multiplied his assets, becoming one of the richest young men in New York. It wasn't even difficult, considering he seemed tailor-made to manage the type of enterprise that was left in his charge.

What he could never have imagined in his best dreams or worst nightmares was that during a business meeting with one of his partner companies, he would encounter none other than Sophie Parker.